A diagnosis of cancer can feel overwhelming. We have an experienced, compassionate team ready to help.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma expertise at SCCA

Lymphoma survival rates

Data collected from cancer centers across the country show that people who begin their lymphoma treatment at SCCA have higher survival rates on average than those who started treatment at other centers.

Innovative NHL therapies

SCCA is a world leader in lymphoma research. Our doctors and scientists pioneered bone marrow transplant — used for lymphoma that’s not cured with initial treatment or that comes back — and we advance new therapies every day.

NHL treatment tailored to you

We view non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma treatment as a collaborative effort. Your SCCA doctor will explain all your options and recommend a treatment plan based on the precise type and stage of your lymphoma and your health, lifestyle and preferences.

Ongoing care and support

Measures to decrease symptoms and improve quality of life are part of every patient’s care. After treatment, your team continues to provide follow-up care on a schedule tailored to you. The SCCA Survivorship Clinic is also here to help you live your healthiest life as an ALL survivor.

Watchful waiting for NHL

If you have slow-growing (also called indolent or low-grade) lymphoma and have no symptoms, your doctor may recommend watchful waiting. This means you and your doctor closely monitor your health for any changes that may mean you need treatment.

Studies have shown that an initial period of watchful waiting does not decrease overall survival for people with indolent lymphoma.

If you have fast-growing (aggressive) lymphoma, watchful waiting is not appropriate. It’s important for you to get treatment promptly.

Chemotherapy for NHL

NHL is most often treated with chemotherapy. Chemo may be combined with radiation therapy or, for B-cell lymphomas, with the targeted therapy rituximab (Rituxan).

Many people are cured with one or more of these treatments. Indolent NHL is rarely cured, but treatment often keeps it well controlled for many years.

Chemotherapy drugs are usually given through an intravenous (IV) line in repeating cycles that range from two to six weeks.

Your SCCA team will talk with you about the specific drugs we recommend for you, how you’ll receive them, your treatment schedule and what to expect. We’ll also explain how to take the best possible care of yourself during and after treatment, and we’ll connect you with medical and support resources throughout SCCA.

For NHL, many of our patients receive a combination of drugs called CHOP:

Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan, Clafen, Neosar)

Doxorubicin hydrochloride (Adriamycin)

Vincristine (Oncovin, Vincasar, Vincrex)

Prednisone

For some people, a different combination is more effective. Your SCCA doctor will recommend the combination most likely to work for your cancer.

Radioimmunotherapy — a treatment given by IV in which the antibody rituximab is tagged with a radioactive atom. Rituximab targets lymphocytes, concentrates radiation in them and triggers an immune system attack against them. It is used mainly for B-cell lymphomas. Radioimmunotherapy is a technique developed at SCCA.

For NHL, doctors most often use radiation to treat cancer in the spleen or in the lymph nodes in the neck, chest, armpits or groin.

We will tailor your radiation treatment to your specific situation.

Targeted therapy for NHL

Targeted therapies are newer cancer treatments that work more selectively than standard chemotherapy. They target a gene or protein responsible for allowing cancer to grow, they directly damage cancer cells, or they prompt your immune system to attack particular cells (also called immunotherapy).

Targeted therapies are given alone or combined with standard treatments, like chemotherapy, to increase the chances of controlling or curing your lymphoma. They are sometimes categorized as small molecules or antibodies.

Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and idelalisib (Zydelig) are examples of small molecule drugs used against NHL.

The most common example of an antibody used for lymphoma is rituximab. It targets a specific molecule on lymphocytes and triggers other immune system proteins to kill these cells.

Immunotherapy for NHL

Rituximab, described above, is considered both a targeted therapy and an immunotherapy (specifically, an antibody therapy) because it partly works by harnessing the power of your immune system to fight cancer.

Axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel), also known by the brand name YESCARTA™, is a new immunotherapy that uses a patients’ own white blood cells, specifically the T cells, to attack lymphoma cells. Axi-cel is used to treat aggressive NHL that either has not responded to or has relapsed after two or more other kinds of treatment.

SCCA is one of the first cancer centers in the nation — and the only center in the Pacific Northwest — to offer axi-cel. Read about getting axi-cel for NHL.

Then your stored stem cells are thawed and returned to your bloodstream to restart your body’s ability to form blood cells again.

If your lymphoma is very aggressive and chemotherapy has not shrunk your tumors, an autologous transplant is usually not an option. In those cases, patients have a transplant using cells from a donor (allogeneic transplant).

More people are eligible for allogeneic transplants than ever before, due to advances available at SCCA, such as:

Clinical trials for NHL

For some people, taking part in a clinical study may be the best treatment choice. Access to clinical studies by researchers at SCCA and our founding organizations Fred Hutch and UW Medicine is one reason many patients come to SCCA.

SCCA researchers are studying new combinations of chemotherapy drugs to find the most effective combinations for different types of NHL and are actively investigating new approaches to T-cell lymphomas, which are particularly challenging to treat with current therapies.